Music videos that feature EB0 to EB4 and SG variant basses...

[Basvarken]

I had to look it up.  He doesn't.

[amptech]

I had to look it up.  He doesn't.

Maybe not in the same place, but either he goes into the chorus before Ronson some place in that song, or all my Aladdin copies are mixed wrong

[gearHed289]

amptech is right. Maybe not the same place, I'll have to go back and listen. But as soon as I read that, I was thinking the same thing.

[Basvarken]

I think I know what you guys mean.
There's a bit of a messy part at 0:37 when they go into the chorus for the first time. There it sounds like Bowie missed the cue 
And they decided to just leave it, warts and all. Great!

[Granny Gremlin]

Wait, wait: TotP was not lipsyched?

I see the guitars and vocal mic are actually got cables plugged into them (they sometimes got real lazy about that, especially later in the 80s), but no mics on the drums and I see no PA (where's that mic cable goin?)... amp lights don't appear to be on (studio lights can make that hard to see, but there were a few close passing shots). Vocals are very different in terms of treatment and cadence of delivery.  Could just be actual live singing over instrumental backing track (possibly not same take as album version to throw people off - seriously, it was not rocket science but th REC COs thought that way).  Or totally live, but I'm a skeptic.

[Basvarken]

Wait, wait: TotP was not lipsyched?

I see the guitars and vocal mic are actually got cables plugged into them (they sometimes got real lazy about that, especially later in the 80s), but no mics on the drums and I see no PA (where's that mic cable goin?)... amp lights don't appear to be on (studio lights can make that hard to see, but there were a few close passing shots). Vocals are very different in terms of treatment and cadence of delivery.  Could just be actual live singing over instrumental backing track (possibly not same take as album version to throw people off - seriously, it was not rocket science but th REC COs thought that way).  Or totally live, but I'm a skeptic.

I do think it is some sort of a live recording.
The drums do have a mic at the kick and I see an overhead mic. But I don't see a mic near the snare though.

Sometimes they had the band record a live instrumental version especially for the tv performance. And then have the lead vocal done live at the actual broadcasted version. I remember seeing a Thin Lizzy performance on TotP with a similar set up. Can't remember which song...

[doombass]

I'm pretty sure they settled for a bass drum mic and one overhang just like that. They could've used a second overhang if it wass needed but he never plays the toms anyway so why bother?

[gearHed289]

Sometimes they had the band record a live instrumental version especially for the tv performance. And then have the lead vocal done live at the actual broadcasted version. I remember seeing a Thin Lizzy performance on TotP with a similar set up. Can't remember which song...

It's my understanding that this was pretty standard practice in the 60s/70s. This is a good example:

[amptech]

Sometimes they had the band record a live instrumental version especially for the tv performance. And then have the lead vocal done live at the actual broadcasted version. I remember seeing a Thin Lizzy performance on TotP with a similar set up. Can't remember which song...

There's a couple of AC/DC vids from the early 70's done like that, sounds like the album versions except live vocals.

[Granny Gremlin]

Yeah - that's what I meant - pre-rec music and only live vox.

[Dave W]

New York Junk, a year ago. Cynthia Ross (B-Girls) and her Melody Maker bass. You can skip the long winded three minute introduction.

[Dave W]

Colin Moulding, Epi Newport.

[uwe]

It's my understanding that this was pretty standard practice in the 60s/70s. This is a good example:

There was a legal obligation when playing on Top of the Pops that you could not use the studio recording from the official recording, you had to record a studio version just for TOTP (which makes these recordings collectible because they sometimes sound quite a bit different to and/or better than the previously recorded official tracks). I believe it had something to do with musicians' union rules for TV work which were back then very restrictive.

It wasn't just confined too TOTP: When Jethro Tull did Too Old  To Rock'n'Roll, Too Young To Die for British TV in the late 70ies, the whole album was (had to be) rerecorded (within a couple of days or so).



Tull actually liked that later, livelier studio version (they are not playing live in the TV show as you can tell, inter alia, by the simultaneous singing and flute playing of Ian Anderson) better and it is what you hear today when you hear the 40th Anniversary remix of  TOTRNR, TYTD. The masters of the original TOTRNR, TYTD only exist in part any more, they were accidentally wiped some years ago.

[Dave W]

Local area cover band, I've never seen them live but noticed the Epi Newport in their videos.

[4stringer77]

The wax figure holds an EB-2 after about 3:00.
RIP Ric Ocasek.